The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has told the Supreme Court that madrasas are “unsuitable or unfit” places for children to receive “proper education”, reported Live Law on Wednesday.

The child rights body also claimed that madrasas did not qualify as “schools” under the Right to Education Act.

“A madrasa is not only an unsuitable or unfit place to receive ‘proper’ education but also in absence of entitlements as provided under…the Right to Education Act,” the agency told the court.

This came in response to a plea challenging the Allahabad High Court’s March 22 decision to strike down the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, as unconstitutional.

The Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act regulated the functioning of madrasas in the state. The act was struck down on the grounds that it violated the Constitution’s principles of secularism and fundamental rights.

The High Court had also ordered the transfer of madrasa students to formal schools, but the Supreme Court stayed the decision in April.

On Wednesday, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud announced that the petitions would be heard in detail soon.

The child rights body said in its affidavit that the model of education in madrasas is insufficient, and that the Uttar Pradesh Madarsa Education Board and its counterparts in other states lacked standardised curricula.

It also said that madrasas, being exempt from the Right to Education Act, are deprived of regulatory committees “because of which the parents are deprived of information regarding the progress of their children”.

The body noted that madrasa students are deprived of the benefits given to children in formal schools, such as midday meals, uniforms and trained teachers.

“Merely teaching a few NCERT [National Council of Educational Research and Training] books in the curriculum is a mere guise in the name of imparting education and does not ensure that the children are receiving formal and quality education,” the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights said, according to The Hindu.

It also said that textbooks taught in madrasas “profess supremacy of Islam”.

The commission also said that non-Muslim children were attending madrasas in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It said that providing Islamic religious education to non-Muslims was a violation of Article 28 of the Constitution, which protects individuals from being compelled to participate in religious instruction or worship.

The child rights body also mentioned the Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, known as the most prominent madrasa in India. It said the institute’s influence had led to the establishment of several madrasas across South Asia, particularly along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

“It has also been alleged by Taliban extremists groups to have been influenced by the religious and political ideologies of Darul Uloom Deoband Madrasa…the Deoband Madrasa issues fatwas online as well as offline and have a very strict and conservative interpretation of Sharia, as evidenced by its issuance of roughly 2,50,000 fatwas which restrict followers in terms of faith, life, and many other aspects,” the child right’s body said.

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